Kabir Bindra and his pet dog walk by the George Washington statue across from the New York Stock Exchange along nearly deserted Wall Street on Sunday. / Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images

by Adam Shell, USA TODAY

by Adam Shell, USA TODAY

Hurricane Sandy has closed U.S. stock and bond markets Monday and Tuesday. It's the first time that weather has forced the shutdown of U.S. stock trading for two straight days since 1888, when a blizzard left drifts of snow as high as 40 feet in New York.

Monday afternoon, the New York Stock Exchange/Euronext said in a statement that all U.S. stock, bond and options markets would be closed Tuesday due to Hurricane Sandy. The markets plan to reopen Wednesday, the statement said.

Sunday night, as the dangerous storm took aim at the heart of the USA's financial district, the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq stock market and the trade association for bond trading all said trading would be halted Monday.

"I don't think the markets being closed are going to have much impact," says Adam Honore, research director at Aite Group. "What happens during that two days is what will have the impact."

In a Monday morning interview with cable business channel CNBC, Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext, said that exchanges, regulators and major market participants were already pushing to reopen stock markets no later than Wednesday.

That's a key trading day on Wall Street because it will be the last day of the month, when stock-related options trades need to be closed, among other important trading deadlines.

Traders will likely view the two-day trading halt, while unusual, as more of a long weekend-type pause than one with negative market implications, such as the terrorist attacks in 2001.

The NYSE's Niederauer reiterated that the decision to shut stock trading completely Monday versus an initial contingency plan that would have allowed electronic trading was made based on concerns about the safety of people who are on Wall Street and in offices elsewhere in Manhattan when trading is open.

"We made the right call," he told CNBC. "My bias is to keep markets open but (this) was an easy decision. It's not worth putting people in danger. There's no reason to be a hero."

He also said that the NYSE's computer back-up facility in Mahway, N.J., which is in the storm's path, was built to survive severe weather events.

"The servers and the data center are well fortified and are not in a flood zone," Niederauer told CNBC. He also said the site of the New York Stock Exchange in lower Manhattan was on the edge of the zone expected to be hardest hit and at the highest risk of flooding.

Niederauer said NYSE personnel on site would assess the situation on an ongoing basis.

On Monday, before trading would have typically opened at 9:30 a.m. ET, the area was being evacuated as water began to flow into the streets at the southernmost tip of Manhattan.

Niederauer also said having banks, brokerages and other trading firms interact with NYSE's all-electronic contingency plan for "the first time, probably was not a great idea either."

Closing all U.S. stock exchanges, rather than having some regional exchanges or other electronic trading platforms up and running, eliminates the potential for erratic trading and market volatility, he added.

The last time weather forced the closure of U.S. markets was Friday, Sept. 27, 1985, due to Hurricane Gloria.

U.S. markets were closed for four days following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That event caused a huge plunge in investor confidence and became a major economic event, market experts say.

In a statement late Sunday, the NYSE said: "In consultation with other exchanges and market participants, NYSE Euronext will close its markets on Monday, Oct. 29, 2012 and pending confirmation on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2012."

"We support the consensus of the markets and the regulatory community that the dangerous conditions developing as a result of Hurricane Sandy will make it extremely difficult to ensure the safety of our people and communities, and safety must be our first priority. We will work with the industry to determine the next steps in restoring trading as soon as the situation permits."

In a statement, the Nasdaq said: "The decision was made in consultation with other U.S. exchanges, government officials and regulators -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The continuity of our markets and a variety of factors related to Hurricane Sandy's movement up the Eastern Seaboard were considered, including the state of emergencies declared by New York City, New York State and other state and local governments."

"I think it makes sense," said Paul Hickey, co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, said Sunday night. "Even as the markets are less centralized to New York now than they have been in the past, you still have a lot of the financial markets operations confined to the New York metro area, and with mass transit and even some highways closing, getting around will be difficult."

All Nasdaq OMX exchanges outside the U.S. are open for business on Monday and Tuesday.